Natsume Yuujinchou Shi – 10

Episode 10 –

Natsume Yuujinchou has always been a series that rarely features two-part arcs. And the trend seems to be that the latter half to each arc is the better of the two. That does still hold true this week, but Natsume Yuujinchou’s more recent episodes have actually been fairly mild. They’ve hit all the tones and themes that we’re used to seeing out of this series, yet I guess the issue I’m beginning to see is how Natsume Yuujinchou doesn’t diverge away from it’s story format terribly much. This could become problematic in the future. Nevertheless, the series has managed to do a surprisingly good job at maintaining character development, in this case for Natori.

That being said, the story of the two gods featured in this episode were intriguing in the sense that we’ve never quite seen actual “gods” in this series. Usually shrine youkai and such, but this was probably the first time we’ve had to genuinely worry about a “god”, as well as how they are powerful enough to make even Nyanko-sensei be cautious.

The more subtle focus here was the contrast between the attitudes of Natori and Natsume. Natori is very straightforward with regards to his job of exterminating youkai, and it is clearly evident by the manner in which he suspects the youkai of plotting to hurt Natsume. And yet, he also seems to be slowly softening up to Natsume’s youkai-friendly attitude, with Hiiragi’s presence further emphasizing the growing connection between these two characters.

In the end, this episode focused on a relationship that we haven’t really seen in much depth; that is, the peculiarities to the Natsume and Natori relationship. They obviously hold trust in each other, but what’s less obvious is how they affect each other’s attitudes towards youkai in understated yet important ways. Natori’s softening stance on youkai can be attributed to him seeing Natsume at work, and how he tries so hard to prevent any serious problems.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.6/5

Screenshots are later in the post.